Menma's Story
by ThatOneTard
Summary: Road to Ninja is long done with. But the mystery of Menma Uzumaki and how he came to be is not. Until now. This is Menma's story, how he became the masked man...and how he fights for redemption after the battle. But can he possibly be saved after going so far? T for violence. (Runaway, and Redemption Remastered. )


He awoke with a gasp, shooting up from a pile of blankets that had been placed over him. Then winced when unbearable pain flared from his back. His chakra network fluttered weakly, but painfully, and his skin burned.

"Augh," he hissed, tensing up.

"I would lay back down if I was you."

Confused, and hurt, Menma looked towards the direction the voice had come from only to see his father's back as the man poked at a fireplace. "You took a nasty hit. Although you're healing...fast."

He bit his lip, letting himself fall back into the makeshift pallet he'd been placed on. _Yeah, I do that now..._

Unsure how to even begin the impending talk, he looked around. Wooden walls surrounded him, corners housing spider webs and nicks from kunai. They weren't too far from the village, he figured. Then there was himself. His torso had been wrapped in bandages...His memory was foggy on to why that even was, though. The last thing he did remember with clarity was...

His hand drew to his face, covering it as things began coming back to him. Flashes of dark memories and each one became worse than the last.

He had become a rogue, killed his own sensei, and destroyed the village. If he had been defeated, it was a miracle he wasn't in a cell or executed already.

"I'm sorry," he croaked, bringing his hand down. "I..."

He couldn't bring himself to say anything. There was nothing that warranted even an attempt to excuse what had passed. No reason to even talk about it.

Menma could see his father's shadow across the floor, see the head shake.

It was his father's utter kindness that had caused him to isolate him and his son from the battle scene in the first place. But even that had its limit, and Menma could only brace himself for the consequences he knew he deserved. Knew was coming. He just hated that it would be his father who would have to bear the burden and not just some faceless Anbu.

After a minute, Minato turned to him, his expression stern yet weary and he threw something towards Menma. It clattered to the floor.

A mask.

"You want to explain to me...about this?"

He closed his eyes, head drooping. "No."

"About Jiraiya's death?"

Menma's brow crinkled and he gritted his teeth.

"Or his murder, I should say?"

He winced. "If I could change things—"

"But you can't."

It was clear his father was hurt just as much as he now was, if not more. "Please stop. Just take us back to the village, I'll turn myself in."

The dark chakra that had so richly filled him was gone, and that went double for the hunger it had spawned as well. Now all Menma felt was regret and utter remorse for the things he had taken. Things that could never be given back.

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

"Please...Minato."

Surprisingly, Minato shook his head once again. "I'm still your father."

He had said it with such sincerity Menma could only stare in bewilderment.

"And as for taking you back to the village, no."

He shook his head. "What? Why?"

"You need to recover first. Get some sleep. Then in the morning...We're going to have a long talk."

A very long one.

But that's a chapter for another time.

* * *

 _AN: Yes this is just a prologue. A good spot I think, to begin before the beginning. And about this "new" story that's really an old one..._

 _How can I_ possibly _keep writing when I have left behind such an atrocity?_

 _Forgive me, and may this rebirth compensate for the time and potential wasted on_ Menma: Runaway _. Ladies, and gents, this is Menma's story reborn. For you, I will endeavor to explain the number one enigma of a character from a Naruto movie: Menma._

 _The more one ponders him, the more one realizes how many plot holes were left behind in_ Road to Ninja's _quake. Hopefully, I can fill them with possibilities and entertain you along the way. Again, but better this time._

 _I swear it._

 _Also, because the time I wasted,_ _**I will write the sequel, Redemption, back to back and mixed in with the Runaway story**_ _. As you could tell from this Prologue, Redemption will take place directly after the movie and play with Menma trying to fix his mess, while Runaway explains it. Kind of like the TV show Arrow, we get a current Oliver, and then are continuously fed another storyline revolving around his past and how he went from a rich playboy who couldn't fend for himself to a murderous vigilante._

 _(Note: I based this Alternative Reality, if you will, and its characters solely off the movie and my own deductions and theories from it. If it is connected whatsoever to what we saw in Tenten's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, it is that those events are in the future, after Menma has come back home and is redeemed, and grew his hair out after his father...and Lee began trying to look cool rather than girly...)_

 **I am only typing this once: I do not own Naruto or characters—Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Shueisha. Neither do I take credit for the quotes that will be featured.**

 **And ready? Here goes:**

 **TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 1: The Planting of Seeds**

 _It's seemingly just another boring day for Menma Uzumaki until he gets a special visit from an old friend...and a ghost-like figure. One that disappears completely but leaves behind a strange scroll...and seeds are planted. Seeds that would change his life forever._

 _(As of this post, the chapter in progress is at 2k and halfway done. And I must say, IT HAS A PLOT! I had to read through the original and was just cracking up at how I went about it all those years ago. This time, there's more drive, even a sprinkle of innocence, I'm looking forward to fixing my own mess.)_


End file.
